Dick's Sporting Goods appoints Lauren Hobart as new CEO

American sports equipment retailer Dick's Sporting Goods has announced that its new CEO will be Lauren Hobart, who joins a small minority of women leading major U.S.-based companies. 

Effective February 1, 2021, the executive will succeed Edward Stack, who has served as the company's CEO since 1984. Stack will continue at the group as executive chairman and chief merchant. 

According to the company, the appointment of Hobart as the head of the chain, which boasts some 850 stores and annual revenues of around $9 billion, is the result of a transition plan that has been developed over a long period of time.

Hobart spent 14 years at PepsiCo before joining Dick's Sporting Goods as senior vice president and senior marketing officer in 2011. 

In a release, Stack celebrated the promotion of an executive he described as "competent, innovative and respected."

With her appointment, Hobart joins a small circle of female CEOs leading large American retail chains, a group which includes the likes of Michelle Gass of Kohl's and Gap's Sonia Syngal.

According to Catalyst, an organization which works to promote female leadership, only 5% of the businesses in the Russell 3000 Index, which features the 3,000 largest companies on Wall Street, are led by women. 

Dick's announced the CEO transition alongside its financial results for the third quarter ended October 31, 2020, a period in which the company saw its net income triple to $177 million. 

Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, the group has benefitted from an increase in demand for home sports equipment, as well as for athleisure apparel. This progress helped compensate for a decrease in sales of school sports uniforms. The retailer's quarterly revenues therefore totaled $2.4 billion, up 23% from $2.0 billion in the prior-year period.